This book focuses on the fundamentals and recent advances in RGB-D imaging as well as covering a range of RGB-D applications. The topics covered include: data acquisition, data quality assessment, filling holes, 3D reconstruction, SLAM, multiple depth camera systems, segmentation, object detection, salience detection, pose estimation, geometric modelling, fall detection, autonomous driving, motor rehabilitation therapy, people counting and cognitive service robots. The availability of cheap RGB-D sensors has led to an explosion over the last five years in the capture and application of colour plus depth data. The addition of depth data to regular RGB images vastly increases the range of applications, and has resulted in a demand for robust and real-time processing of RGB-D data. There remain many technical challenges, and RGB-D image processing is an ongoing research area. This book covers the full state of the art, and consists of a series of chapters by internationally renowned experts in the field. Each chapter is written so as to provide a detailed overview of that topic. RGB-D Image Analysis and Processing will enable both students and professional developers alike to quickly get up to speed with contemporary techniques, and apply RGB-D imaging in their own projects.

A synthesis of more than ten years of experience, Remote Sensing Image Fusion covers methods specifically designed for remote sensing imagery. The authors supply a comprehensive classification system and rigorous mathematical description of advanced and state-of-the-art methods for pansharpening of multispectral images, fusion of hyperspectral and panchromatic images, and fusion of data from heterogeneous sensors such as optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images and integration of thermal and visible/near-infrared images. They also explore new trends of signal/image processing, such as compressive sensing and sparse signal representations. The book brings a new perspective to a multidisciplinary research field that is becoming increasingly articulate and comprehensive. It fosters signal/image processing methodologies toward the goal of information extraction, either by humans or by machines, from remotely sensed images. The authors explain how relatively simple processing methods tailored to the specific features of the images may be winning in terms of reliable performance over more complex algorithms based on mathematical theories and models unconstrained from the physical behaviors of the instruments. Ultimately, the book covers the births and developments of three generations of RS image fusion. Established textbooks are mainly concerned with the earliest generation of methods. This book focuses on second generation methods you can use now and new trends that may become third generation methods. Only the lessons learned with second generation methods will be capable of fostering the excellence among the myriad of methods that are proposed almost every day by the scientific literature.

Motivated by a variational model concerning the depth of the objects in a picture and the problem of hidden and illusory contours, this book investigates one of the central problems of computer vision: the topological and algorithmic reconstruction of a smooth three dimensional scene starting from the visible part of an apparent contour. The authors focus their attention on the manipulation of apparent contours using a finite set of elementary moves, which correspond to diffeomorphic deformations of three dimensional scenes. A large part of the book is devoted to the algorithmic part, with implementations, experiments, and computed examples. The book is intended also as a user's guide to the software code appcontour, written for the manipulation of apparent contours and their invariants. This book is addressed to theoretical and applied scientists working in the field of mathematical models of image segmentation.

Expand your imagination by letting go of the limitations of traditional animation mediums, software packages, or workflows and integrating 2D and 3D assets. With the updated and expanded second edition of Hybrid Animation you'll learn how to choose the techniques that best express the artistic and narrative direction of your project and get the technical support you need to bring your ideas to life. Learn how different pipelines of hybrid animation can be broken down and rethought in different packages. Does the 3D character lead a 2D character? Or, does the 2D character have 3D parts? Perhaps a 3D prop is interacting with a 2D character? All of these hybrid patterns are explored from high end to open source software. By the end of the book you'll be able to see how to apply these techniques to the software you have now. Insight and inspiration are at your fingertips with exercises, step-by-step tutorials and featured interviews with Todd Render of Floyd County Productions and Marty Altman, former CGI Technical Director at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Features: Now with updated software methodologies, new tricks, and expanded sections on Toon Boom Animate Pro, Toon Boom Harmony and more. Produce high-quality 2D and 3D narratives in a variety of software workflows, including Photoshop, Corel, Flash, After Effects and Maya, Nuke, Houdini, Smoke, and Toon Boom workflows. Think critically about visual styles, the effects of 2D/3D overlaying and the entire pipeline from start to finish. Explore additional chapters and over 6 gigs of sample files available in the companion data found at www.hybridanimation.com Tina O'Hailey is Dean of Digital Media at the Savannah College of Art and Design with locations in: Atlanta, Savannah and Hong Kong. Having worked for Electronic Arts, Walt Disney Feature Animation, she has extensive experience in feature animation and game development. O'Hailey has served as an Artist Development Trainer for Brother Bear (2003), Lilo and Stitch (2003), Mulan (1998) and Prince of Egypt (1998).

A rare look at the role of special effects in creating fictional worlds and transmedia franchises From comic book universes crowded with soaring superheroes and shattering skyscrapers to cosmic empires set in far-off galaxies, today's fantasy blockbusters depend on visual effects. Bringing science fiction from the studio to your screen, through film, television, or video games, these special effects power our entertainment industry. More Than Meets the Eye delves into the world of fantastic media franchises to trace the ways in which special effects over the last 50 years have become central not just to transmedia storytelling but to worldbuilding, performance, and genre in contemporary blockbuster entertainment. More Than Meets the Eye maps the ways in which special effects build consistent storyworlds and transform genres while traveling from one media platform to the next. Examining high-profile franchises in which special effects have played a constitutive role such as Star Trek, Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Lord of the Rings, as well as more contemporary franchises like Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter, Bob Rehak analyzes the ways in which production practices developed alongside the cultural work of industry professionals. By studying social and cultural factors such as fan interaction, this book provides a context for understanding just how much multiplatform storytelling has come to define these megahit franchises. More Than Meets the Eye explores the larger history of how physical and optical effects in postwar Hollywood laid the foundation for modern transmedia franchises and argues that special effects are not simply an adjunct to blockbuster filmmaking, but central agents of an entire mode of production.

Tackle the Challenges of Parallel Programming in the Visual Effects Industry In Multithreading for Visual Effects, developers from DreamWorks Animation, Pixar, Side Effects, Intel, and AMD share their successes and failures in the messy real-world application area of production software. They provide practical advice on multithreading techniques and visual effects used in popular visual effects libraries (such as Bullet, OpenVDB, and OpenSubdiv), one of the industry's leading visual effects packages (Houdini), and proprietary animation systems. This information is valuable not just to those in the visual effects arena, but also to developers of high performance software looking to increase performance of their code. Diverse Solutions to Solve Performance Problems After an introductory chapter, each subsequent chapter presents a case study that illustrates how the authors used multithreading techniques to achieve better performance. The authors discuss the problems that occurred and explain how they solved them. The case studies encompass solutions for shaving milliseconds, solutions for optimizing longer running tasks, multithreading techniques for modern CPU architectures, and massive parallelism using GPUs. Some of the case studies include open source projects so you can try out these techniques for yourself and see how well they work.

Biomedical / Electrical Engineering Nonlinear Biomedical Signal Processing Volume II: Dynamic Analysis and Modeling A volume in the IEEE Press Series on Biomedical Engineering Metin Akay, Series Editor Featuring current contributions by experts in signal processing and biomedical engineering, this book introduces the concepts, recent advances, and implementations of nonlinear dynamic analysis methods. Together with Volume I in this series, this book provides comprehensive coverage of nonlinear signal and image processing techniques. Nonlinear Biomedical Signal Processing: Volume II combines analytical and biological expertise in the original mathematical simulation and modeling of physiological systems. Detailed discussions of the analysis of steady-state and dynamic systems, discrete-time system theory, and discrete modeling of continuous-time systems are provided. Biomedical examples include the analysis of the respiratory control system, the dynamics of cardiac muscle and the cardiorespiratory function, and neural firing patterns in auditory and vision systems. Examples include relevant MATLAB(r) and Pascal programs. Topics covered include:
* Nonlinear dynamics
* Behavior and estimation
* Modeling of biomedical signals and systems
* Heart rate variability measures, models, and signal assessments
* Origin of chaos in cardiovascular and gastric myoelectrical activity
* Measurement of spatio-temporal dynamics of human epileptic seizures.
A valuable reference book for medical researchers, medical faculty, and advanced graduate students, it is also essential reading for practicing biomedical engineers. Nonlinear Biomedical Signal Processing, Volume II is anexcellent companion to Dr. Akay's Nonlinear Biomedical Signal Processing, Volume I: Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks, and New Algorithms.

A comprehensive resource on airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, Airborne Circulatory Polarized SAR explains the theory, system design, hardware and software, and applications of airborne circularly polarized SAR in environmental monitoring and other uses. Readers learn how to build the hardware and software of circularly polarized SAR, the antenna system, and how to generate point target responses and images using the range doppler algorithm (RDA) from raw signal data. The book discusses applications and analyzing techniques using a circularly polarized SAR system and image processing. Images and MATLAB codes are provided to help professionals and researchers with their applications and future studies. Features 1. Provides the theory of circularly polarized wave and polarimetry related to system design, scattering analysis, polarimetric SAR, and applications in microwave remote sensing. 2. Explains the real radio frequency (RF) system and the original antenna, including circuit explanation and know-how of measurement technique to adjust to the required parameter in system design. 3. Discusses the technique of ground test and flight mission to calibrate and validate the performance of airborne circularly polarized SAR. 4. Highlights image signal processing with MATLAB codes and how to obtain a single look complex (SLC) image for further applications. 5. Includes several applications of airborne circularly polarized SAR from international leading experts. This book is beneficial to professionals, researchers, academics, and graduate students from disciplines such as Electronic Engineering; Radar Systems; Aerospace Engineering; Signal Processing; Image Processing; Environmental Remote Sensing.

The subject of digital image processing has migrated from a graduate to a junior or senior level course as students become more proficient in mathematical background earlier in their college education. With that in mind, Introduction to Digital Image Processing is simpler in terms of mathematical derivations and eliminates derivations of advanced subjects. Most importantly, the textbook contains an extensive set of programming exercises for students.
The textbook examines the basic technologies needed to support image processing applications, including the characterization of continuous images, image sampling and quantization techniques, and two-dimensional signal processing techniques. It then covers the two principle areas of image processing: image enhancement and restoration techniques and extraction of information from an image. It concludes with discussions of image and video compression.

• Covers the mathematical representation of continuous images and discrete images
• Discusses the psychophysical properties of human vision
• Analyzes and compares linear processing techniques implemented by direct convolution and Fourier domain filtering
• Details restoration models, point and spatial restoration and geometrical image modification
• Includes morphological image processing, edge detection, image feature extraction, image segmentation, object shape analysis, and object detection
• Describes coding technique applicable to still image and video coding based upon point and spatial processing
• Outlines the widely adopted JPEG and MPEG still image and video coding standards

The author s accessible style provides historical background on the development of image processing techniques as well as a theoretical exposition. The inclusion of numerous exercises fully prepares students for further study."

This book examines distributed video coding (DVC) and multiple description coding (MDC), two novel techniques designed to address the problems of conventional image and video compression coding. Covering all fundamental concepts and core technologies, the chapters can also be read as independent and self-sufficient, describing each methodology in sufficient detail to enable readers to repeat the corresponding experiments easily. Topics and features: provides a broad overview of DVC and MDC, from the basic principles to the latest research; covers sub-sampling based MDC, quantization based MDC, transform based MDC, and FEC based MDC; discusses Sleplian-Wolf coding based on Turbo and LDPC respectively, and comparing relative performance; includes original algorithms of MDC and DVC; presents the basic frameworks and experimental results, to help readers improve the efficiency of MDC and DVC; introduces the classical DVC system for mobile communications, providing the developmental environment in detail.

Quad Rotorcraft Control develops original control methods for the navigation and hovering flight of an autonomous mini-quad-rotor robotic helicopter. These methods use an imaging system and a combination of inertial and altitude sensors to localize and guide the movement of the unmanned aerial vehicle relative to its immediate environment.
The history, classification and applications of UAVs are introduced, followed by a description of modelling techniques for quad-rotors and the experimental platform itself. A control strategy for the improvement of attitude stabilization in quad-rotors is then proposed and tested in real-time experiments. The strategy, based on the use low-cost components and with experimentally-established robustness, avoids drift in the UAV s angular position by the addition of an internal control loop to each electronic speed controller ensuring that, during hovering flight, all four motors turn at almost the same speed. The quad-rotor s Euler angles being very close to the origin, other sensors like GPS or image-sensing equipment can be incorporated to perform autonomous positioning or trajectory-tracking tasks.
Two vision-based strategies, each designed to deal with a specific kind of mission, are introduced and separately tested. The first stabilizes the quad-rotor over a landing pad on the ground; it extracts the 3-dimensional position using homography estimation and derives translational velocity by optical flow calculation. The second combines colour-extraction and line-detection algorithms to control the quad-rotor s 3-dimensional position and achieves forward velocity regulation during a road-following task.
In order to estimate the translational-dynamical characteristics of the quad-rotor (relative position and translational velocity) as they evolve within a building or other unstructured, GPS-deprived environment, imaging, inertial and altitude sensors are combined in a state observer. The text give the reader a current view of the problems encountered in UAV control, specifically those relating to quad-rotor flying machines and it will interest researchers and graduate students working in that field. The vision-based control strategies presented help the reader to a better understanding of how an imaging system can be used to obtain the information required for performance of the hovering and navigation tasks ubiquitous in rotored UAV operation."

A timely and authoritative guide to the state of the art of wave scattering

Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves offers in three volumes a complete and up-to-date treatment of wave scattering by random discrete scatterers and rough surfaces. Written by leading scientists who have made important contributions to wave scattering over three decades, this new work explains the principles, methods, and applications of this rapidly expanding, interdisciplinary field. It covers both introductory and advanced material and provides students and researchers in remote sensing as well as imaging, optics, and electromagnetic theory with a one-stop reference to a wealth of current research results. Plus, Scattering of Electromagnetic Waves contains detailed discussions of both analytical and numerical methods, including cutting-edge techniques for the recovery of earth/land parametric information.

The three volumes are entitled respectively Theories and Applications, Numerical Simulation, and Advanced Topics. In the second volume, Numerical Simulations, Leung Tsang (University of Washington) Jin Au Kong (MIT), Kung-Hau Ding (Air Force Research Lab), and Chi On Ao (MIT) cover:

• Layered media simulations
• Rough surface and volume scattering simulations
• Dense media models and simulations
• Electromagnetic scattering by discrete scatterers and a buried object
• Scattering by vertical cylinders above a surface
• Electromagnetic waves scattering by vegetation
• Computational methods and programs used for performing various simulations

Exploring theories and applications developed during the last 30 years, Digital Geometry in Image Processing presents a mathematical treatment of the properties of digital metric spaces and their relevance in analyzing shapes in two and three dimensions. Unlike similar books, this one connects the two areas of image processing and digital geometry, highlighting important results of digital geometry that are currently used in image analysis and processing.

The book discusses different digital geometries in multi-dimensional integral coordinate spaces. It also describes interesting properties of the geometries, including metric and topological properties, shapes of circles and spheres, proximity to Euclidean norms, and number theoretic representations of geometric objects such as straight lines and circles. The authors all active researchers in image processing and digital geometry demonstrate how these concepts and properties are useful in various techniques for image processing and analysis. In particular, the book covers applications in object representation and shape analysis.

With many figures (some in color) and end-of-chapter exercises, this book provides an in-depth, unified account of digital metrics, the characterization of digital curves and straight lines, and their uses in shape analysis. It gives you insight on the latest two- and three-dimensional image processing applications."

"Foundations of Large-Scale Multimedia Information Management and Retrieval - Mathematics of Perception"" "covers knowledge representation and semantic analysis of multimedia data and scalability in signal extraction, data mining, and indexing. The book is divided into two parts: Part I - Knowledge Representation and Semantic Analysis focuses on the key components of mathematics of perception as it applies to data management and retrieval. These include feature selection/reduction, knowledge representation, semantic analysis, distance function formulation for measuring similarity, and multimodal fusion. Part II - Scalability Issues presents indexing and distributed methods for scaling up these components for high-dimensional data and Web-scale datasets. The book presents some real-world applications and remarks on future research and development directions.

The book is designed for researchers, graduate students, and practitioners in the fields of Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Large-scale Data Mining, Database, and Multimedia Information Retrieval.

Dr. Edward Y. Chang was a professor at the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of California at Santa Barbara, before he joined Google as a research director in 2006. Dr. Chang received his M.S. degree in Computer Science and Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering, both from Stanford University.

Discover everything you want to know about Photoshop CS6 in this easy to use guide, from the most essential tasks that you'll want to perform, to solving the most common problems you'll encounter. Photoshop CS6 In Simple Stepscovers every practical aspect of using Photoshop CS6 on your PC or laptop; from getting acquainted with essential Photoshop CS6 tools, to basic retouching and adjusting, through to advanced techniques using selections, layers and masks. This book is filled with easy to understand practical tasks that will help you to achieve immediate results. This series of vibrant books will teach you exactly what you need to know using A friendly, visual approach Easy-to-understand language Practical hands-on tasks Full-colour large format screenshots To build your confidence and help you to get the most out of your computer, practical hints, tips and shortcuts feature on every page: ALERT!- Explains and provides practical solutions to the most commonly encountered problems HOT TIPS- Time and effort saving shortcuts SEE ALSO... - Points you to other related tasks and information DID YOU KNOW? - Additional features to explore WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?- Jargon and technical terms explained in plain English

Once Upon a Pixel examines the increasing sophistication of storytelling and worldbuilding in modern video games. Drawing on some of gaming's most popular titles, including Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, and the long-running Metal Gear Solid series, it is a pioneering exploration into narrative in games from the perspective of the creative writer. With interviews and insights from across the industry, it provides a complete account of how Triple-A, independent, and even virtual reality games are changing the way we tell stories. Key Features A fresh perspective on video games as a whole new form of creative writing. Interviews with a range of leading industry figures, from critics to creators. Professional analysis of modern video game script excerpts. Insights into emerging technologies and the future of interactive storytelling.

This unique text/reference provides a coherent and comprehensive overview of all aspects of video analysis of humans. Broad in coverage and accessible in style, the text presents original perspectives collected from preeminent researchers gathered from across the world. In addition to presenting state-of-the-art research, the book reviews the historical origins of the different existing methods, and predicts future trends and challenges. Features: with a Foreword by Professor Larry Davis; contains contributions from an international selection of leading authorities in the field; includes an extensive glossary; discusses the problems associated with detecting and tracking people through camera networks; examines topics related to determining the time-varying 3D pose of a person from video; investigates the representation and recognition of human and vehicular actions; reviews the most important applications of activity recognition, from biometrics and surveillance, to sports and driver assistance.

Covering the theoretical aspects of image processing and analysis through the use of graphs in the representation and analysis of objects, Image Processing and Analysis with Graphs: Theory and Practice also demonstrates how these concepts are indispensible for the design of cutting-edge solutions for real-world applications."

Explores new applications in computational photography, image and video processing, computer graphics, recognition, medical and biomedical imaging"

With the explosive growth in image production, in everything from digital photographs to medical scans, there has been a drastic increase in the number of applications based on digital images. This book explores how graphs which are suitable to represent any discrete data by modeling neighborhood relationships have emerged as the perfect unified tool to represent, process, and analyze images. It also explains why graphs are ideal for defining graph-theoretical algorithms that enable the processing of functions, making it possible to draw on the rich literature of combinatorial optimization to produce highly efficient solutions.

Some key subjects covered in the book include:

• Definition of graph-theoretical algorithms that enable denoising and image enhancement
• Energy minimization and modeling of pixel-labeling problems with graph cuts and Markov Random Fields
• Image processing with graphs: targeted segmentation, partial differential equations, mathematical morphology, and wavelets
• Analysis of the similarity between objects with graph matching
• Adaptation and use of graph-theoretical algorithms for specific imaging applications in computational photography, computer vision, and medical and biomedical imaging

Use of graphs has become very influential in computer science and has led to many applications in denoising, enhancement, restoration, and object extraction. Accounting for the wide variety of problems being solved with graphs in image processing and computer vision, this book is a contributed volume of chapters written by renowned experts who address specific techniques or applications. This state-of-the-art overview provides application examples that illustrate practical application of theoretical algorithms. Useful as a support for graduate courses in image processing and computer vision, it is also perfect as a reference for practicing engineers working on development and implementation of image processing and analysis algorithms.

All professional animators know a handful of secrets that give them an edge in a production environment. "How to Cheat in Maya" puts these secrets in your hands Learn time and energy-saving techniques tested in real Hollywood productions in this book, jam- packed with screenshots and scene files designed to get you up to speed quickly. From menus to modeling, lipsync to lighting, How to Cheat in Maya 2013 covers all of the methods available in the latest version of Maya. Get up to speed quickly and produce stellar results with these insider workflows. With new, updated cheats for the latest version of Maya, "How to Cheat in Maya" is an essential guide for amateur and professional 3D animators alike. Fully updated with gold-mine coverage including: expanded sections on production workflow, all new chapters covering rigging cheats and Maya's referencing tools, and brand new project files demonstrating production-proven techniques. The companion website includes complete scene files for exercises and techniques, extra rigs, Quicktime movies of full projects, and video tutorials. NOTE: there is a problem with the companion web site. As Focal Press continues to work on this issue, please visit http: //www.kennyroy.com/public/How-to-Cheat-in-Maya-2013.cfm for the scene files, extra rigs and movies of full projects. We apologize for any inconvenience.

This is a must for the serious Photoshop user! Power, Speed & Automation explores how to customize and automate Photoshop to increase your speed and productivity. With numerous step-by-step instructions, the authors-two of Adobe's own software developers!- walk you through the steps to best tailor Photoshop's interface to your personal workflow; write and apply Actions; and use batching and scripts to process large numbers of images quickly and automatically. You will learn how to build your own dialogs and panels to improve your production workflows in Photoshop, the secrets of changing keyboard shortcuts and menus, and ways to tune your system for optimal performance. Writing new processes using JavaScript is also covered, as well as leveraging Variables with data sets. Learn how to get more work done? more easily and quickly? with this essential guide! *This book can be used with any version of Photoshop through CS6!*

Discover everything you want to know about Photoshop Elements 10 in this easy to use guide, from the most essential tasks that you'll want to perform, to solving the most common problems you'll encounter. Photoshop Elements 10 In Simple Stepscovers every practical aspect of using Photoshop Elements on your PC or laptop; from understanding the user interface and essential tools, to basic retouching and adjusting of photographs, to advanced techniques using filters, layers and special effects, through to organizing and sharing your photographs. This book is filled with easy to understand practical tasks that will help you to achieve immediate results. This series of vibrant books will teach you exactly what you need to know using A friendly, visual approach Easy-to-understand language Practical hands-on tasks Full-colour large format screenshots To build your confidence and help you to get the most out of your computer, practical hints, tips and shortcuts feature on every page: ALERT!- Explains and provides practical solutions to the most commonly encountered problems HOT TIPS- Time and effort saving shortcuts SEE ALSO... - Points you to other related tasks and information DID YOU KNOW? - Additional features to explore WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? - Jargon and technical terms explained in plain English

This book presents a simple, yet comprehensive, treatment of the basic principles and applications of novel phase masks and non-uniform optical windows under the increasingly popular umbrella term "pupil engineering." It discusses current research topics in the areas of phase-space representations for engineering imaging devices with extended depth of field, as well as sparse optical sensing and emergent phenomena such as vortices and singularities, highlighting the heuristic applications of key concepts in novel models and their graphic representations. The book is appealing to anyone interested in robotic vision and is a valuable resource for upper-level students, teachers, scientists, and engineers in the field of image science, lasers, and digital image processing.

GPU Pro3, the third volume in the GPU Pro book series, offers practical tips and techniques for creating real-time graphics that are useful to beginners and seasoned game and graphics programmers alike. Section editors Wolfgang Engel, Christopher Oat, Carsten Dachsbacher, Wessam Bahnassi, and Sebastien St-Laurent have once again brought together a high-quality collection of cutting-edge techniques for advanced GPU programming. With contributions by more than 50 experts, GPU Pro3: Advanced Rendering Techniques covers battle-tested tips and tricks for creating interesting geometry, realistic shading, real-time global illumination, and high-quality shadows, for optimizing 3D engines, and for taking advantage of the advanced power of the GPGPU. Sample programs and source code are available for download on the book's CRC Press web page.

Updates and addendum for the new version of FCPX (10.0.3) are available on the companion website, fcpxbook.com. Are you an iMovie or Final Cut Express user ready to make the jump to Final Cut Pro? If so, look no further. Take your movies to the next level with this easy-to-follow, hand-on guide from one of the preeminent Apple trainers in the world today. Author Tom Wolsky starts with the basics of Final Cut Pro X, allowing you to easily make the leap from Final Cut Express or iMovie, then gradually introduces you to more complex techniques with step-by-step tutorials. Tom specifically shows you how certain techniques and concepts you utilized in iMovie and Final Cut Express translate to Final Cut Pro. More than a button-pushing manual, this editing workshop gives your firsthand experience with the art and technique of editing with Final Cut Pro. It includes in-depth information on the application's features, interface elements, and tools. You will develop a working knowledge of the principles and methods taught in film schools with tutorials that covers the essentials: . Nuances of system set-up to ensure smooth operation . Getting your tape-based and file-based AVCHD and DSLR media into Final Cut Pro and getting it organized . Editing to build and trim a sequence of shots . Working with audio, split edits, back-timing and level control . Adding transitions . Final Cut Pro titling tools . Color correction, image animation, and special effects . Compositing to enhance your projects . Outputting your material